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From our family to yours...
We are a 100%-owned family farm, so you can rest assured that everything that bears our name is produced on our farm with the greatest attention to every detail.
You see, we truly care about the health of our family, and we care about yours too.
Our mission is to provide families with truly healthy meat.
Farm Blog
Posted by: Trevor
May 31, 2025
The incidence of modern thiamine deficiency varies, and in some populations can be as high as 90 percent1. Yet because thiamine is added to many fortified foods, tissue levels are often assumed to be adequate, and a deficiency can go undiagnosed.
Over time, the effects of a chronic thiamine (also known as B1) deficit can include neurocognitive and neuromuscular illness, diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity, and an array of other ailments2.
But in the early stages, low B1 levels can include vague symptoms like mental fuzziness, irritability, memory loss, sleep problems, and food intolerances3. And because these can be associated with many conditions, a thiamine deficiency can easily get missed.
Thiamine enhances physical and cognitive function4. The mechanism for this is that it improves glucose metabolism. When we ingest thiamine, we metabolize glucose better, which results in lower lactate5 and higher CO26 levels, both of which are associated with enhanced physical performance. But B1 can also increase dopamine levels, as a study on allithiamine (a version of thiamine found in the bulbs of alliums, such as garlic) demonstrated7.
Thiamine is water-soluble and has a short half-life, so the body has limited storage capacity. What thiamine we do hold in storage, can be rapidly depleted by modern stress, and nutritional and environmental factors. So even if we are getting the recommended daily allowance, it may not be adequate8.
To complicate matters, if we are magnesium deficient (which many of us are), we can become thiamine deficient even if we are getting the RDA. This is because thiamine uptake is magnesium dependent9.
Although thiamine is naturally found in many foods, it can be degraded by processing. That’s why many processed foods have added thiamine, to replace the thiamine which has been lost. These foods are classified as “fortified” --- and they are everywhere.
Fortified foods often contain several added minerals and vitamins, to make up for what might be missing in our diets. But many of us question whether we are adequately absorbing these fortified nutrients, which are synthetically derived, and manufactured through industrial processes. If we aren’t absorbing them properly, then we may be deficient even though we seem to be ingesting sufficient amounts.
Worse, high carb diets interfere with proper thiamine absorption10. So even if a food is B1-fortified, if it is high in sugar or starch, then it can counteract your body’s ability to uptake the nutrient.
And while it may be uncomfortable for us to hear, coffee and tea can impair B1 absorption11. That doesn’t mean we need to give up these drinks. It just means we may need extra thiamine.
Amazingly, our bodies are capable of producing a small amount of thiamine on their own, through our microbiome. Certain bacteria in our gut can synthesize B112. But this only represents a very small amount of the thiamine we need on a daily basis. Therefore we need to look to healthy, whole foods as our primary thiamine source.
There is an easy way to supplement natural thiamine into your diet...
One of the foods highest in thiamine is pork13. Yet all of the conventional pork which is sold in the grocery store comes from barn pigs --- animals which are raised exclusively indoors. They are bred to be lean. They are also fed high amounts of soy, and given sub-therapeutic levels of medication in their diets.
This is a tragedy because pigs are not designed to live exclusively indoors, rather they are meant to live outdoors where they can forage on roots, seeds, insects, plants, microbes, and even soil itself. They instinctively spend hours sunbathing, if given the chance, and absorb the sunlight, which transforms their fat into a healthy store of nutrients. Lard from outdoor pigs is a healthy source of monounsaturated fats, and includes abundant nutrients as well as vitamins D and A.
Pork from outdoor-raised, certified organic and soy-free animals, is an excellent way to get more thiamine into your diet14 as well as a broad array of other nutrients. Other than delicious things like pork breakfast sausages, back ribs, and double-loin chops, a wonderful and convenient way to enjoy healthy pork is by concentrating its nutrition into a bone broth. If you add abundant quantities of certified organic garlic and onions into the broth (as we do), its thiamine content is further enhanced, resulting in greater nutrient density and flavor.
By getting our nutrition from healthy, sustainable sources such as certified organic whole food products, produced locally and humanely, we are providing our bodies with the building blocks necessary to regenerate, heal, and renew. As we do this consistently, our bodies can carry out their amazing natural processes of cellular renewal, tissue repair, and even organ regeneration --- supported by the simple yet profound daily ritual of sustainable, healthy eating.
- Hiding in Plain Sight: Modern Thiamine Deficiency. Marrs and Lonsdale. Cells. 2021
- Observations on induced thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency in man. Williams, Mason, et al. Arch. Intern. Med. 1940
- Williams, Mason, et al., previously cited
- Promoting arousal associated with physical activity with the vitamin B1 derivative TTFD. Hata, Grenier, et al. The Journal of Physiological Sciences. 2025
- An Overview of Type B Lactic Acidosis Due to Thiamine (B1) Deficiency. Agedal, Steidl, et al. The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 2023
- The importance of thiamine (vitamin B1) in humans. Mrowicka, Mrowicki, et al. Bioscience Reports. 2023
- Hata, Grenier, et al., previously cited
- Marrs and Lonsdale, previously cited
- A prospective evaluation of thiamine and magnesium… Maguire, Talwar, et al. Journal of Translational Medicine. 2019
- Marrs and Lonsdale, previously cited
- Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) Deficiency. Wiley, Gupta, et al. Statpearls. 2025
- Vitamin Bioynthesis by Human Gut Butyrate… Soto-Martin, Warnke, et al. mBio. 2020
- Thiamin Content of Pork. Nutrition Reviews. 1944
- Thiamin Content, previously cited
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